Drill 13 · Multiple Choice · Unit 2: Freedom, Enslavement, and Resistance
AP African American Studies: Emigration, Colonization, and Black Political Thought (Drill 13) is a Multiple Choice practice drill covering Unit 2: Freedom, Enslavement, and Resistance. It contains 5 original questions created by Brian Stewart, a Barron's test prep author with over 20 years of tutoring experience.
Test your knowledge of 19th-century debates over emigration, colonization, and Black political thought with these AP African American Studies practice questions. This AP exam prep drill covers the American Colonization Society, the colonization debate, and thinkers like David Walker, Martin Delany, and Frederick Douglass.
The following summarizes the argument made by Robert Purvis, a prominent free Black abolitionist in Philadelphia, in addresses to antislavery meetings during the late 1850s and 1860. Purvis consistently rejected colonization and emigration proposals, insisting on Black Americans' rightful place as citizens of the United States.
Purvis argued that African Americans were unequivocally American citizens by birth and by the contributions of their forebears to the nation. He rejected the premise, advanced by the American Colonization Society and by some Black nationalists, that African Americans should leave the United States for Liberia or elsewhere. His father was born in the United States, he insisted; his father's father was born in the United States; he himself knew no other country. To accept emigration, Purvis argued, was to accept the proslavery claim that Black Americans had no legitimate place in the nation of their birth, a concession he refused to make.
Adapted from Robert Purvis, public addresses on colonization and citizenship, Philadelphia, late 1850s, 1860.
Question 1. Based on the source, what argument does Robert Purvis make about Black Americans’ relationship to the United States?
Explanation: Purvis argues that multi-generational birth on American soil, civic participation, and willingness to defend the nation establish Black Americans as rightful citizens, a direct rebuttal to colonizationist arguments that Black people did not belong in America. Choice A is not supported by the source; Purvis makes no appeal to foreign nations. Choice C is the opposite of Purvis’s claim; he argues for belonging in America, not emigration. Choice D concerns movement strategy and is not addressed in the source. [Skill 2A, Identifying claims in a source]
Question 2. The argument made by Robert Purvis in the source most directly challenged which of the following?
Explanation: The American Colonization Society (ACS), founded in 1816, rested on the premise that free Black people would never be fully accepted in the United States and should be resettled in Liberia. Purvis’s insistence on birthright citizenship and American belonging directly refutes this premise. Choice A is a true statement about Garrisonian abolitionists but is not what Purvis’s argument challenges, Garrison himself also opposed colonization. Choice B concerns Delany’s economic nationalism rather than his emigration advocacy, and Purvis is not addressing economic development. Choice D is true but irrelevant, Purvis’s argument is about belonging, not electoral strategy. [Skill 2B, Source perspective and purpose]
Question 3. Which of the following best describes the significance of Martin Delany’s The Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States (1852)?
Explanation: Delany’s 1852 work is a founding text of Black nationalism and emigrationism. He argued that African Americans, facing permanent racial oppression in the United States, should consider emigrating to build independent Black nations, in Central America, South America, or West Africa. Delany explicitly rejected the ACS (Choice D), which he viewed as a white-led organization designed to remove free Black people from the country rather than advance Black freedom. Choice B describes the moral suasion approach of William Lloyd Garrison, which Delany opposed. Choice C describes the philosophy associated with figures like David Walker but not Delany’s 1852 work specifically. [Skill 1A, Applying disciplinary knowledge]
Question 4. Compared to Martin Delany’s emigrationist position, Frederick Douglass’s response to the colonization debate in the 1850s is best described as arguing that
Explanation: Douglass consistently opposed colonization and emigration schemes. He argued that African Americans had built this country through their labor, had deep American roots, and deserved to remain and claim full citizenship rather than leave for an uncertain future elsewhere, a sharp contrast to Delany’s emigrationism. Choice A misrepresents Douglass, who was an immediatist demanding immediate emancipation, not gradualism. Choice B attributes a specific geographic preference to Douglass not supported by historical evidence or the CED. Choice C is a true statement about Douglass’s Underground Railroad connections but does not address the comparison the question asks about. [Skill 1A, Applying disciplinary knowledge]
Question 5. David Walker’s Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World (1829) most directly contributed to which of the following developments in the antebellum period?
Explanation: Walker’s Appeal called on enslaved and free Black people to resist slavery by any means necessary, including violent rebellion. Its circulation terrified Southern slaveholders and state legislatures: several Southern states passed laws criminalizing abolitionist literature and tightening restrictions on enslaved people’s literacy and movement. This is the most direct historical consequence traceable to the Appeal. Choice A is a true statement about the ACS, but it was founded in 1816, thirteen years before Walker’s Appeal, so Walker could not have contributed to its founding. This is a classic “true but chronologically impossible” trap. Choice C describes the Liberty Party’s growth in the 1840s, a decade later, and is not directly tied to the Appeal. Choice D concerns Douglass’s evolving philosophy in the late 1840s–1850s, too far removed in time and causation from Walker’s 1829 pamphlet. [Skill 1B, Contextualization and causation]